CHF International Partners with Tenke Fungurume Mining

CHF International Partners with Tenke Fungurume Mining

A partnership to drive community urban development in the area surrounding the Tenke Fungurume mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Silver Spring, MD – CHF International, the Silver Spring, MD based international development and humanitarian assistance organization, announced it has entered into partnership with Tenke Fungurume Mining (TFM), an affiliate of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., focusing on community development and urban growth in the Tenke Fungurume area, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The town of Fungurume in southern Katanga Province of the DRC has undergone phenomenal growth since TFM began developing a copper mine there in 2006. New migrants, attracted by the possibility of jobs and prospects of other opportunities, have caused the population to grow from 50,000 to nearly 100,000. This rapid population growth has outpaced the town’s ability to plan for and accommodate this sudden change. The resulting urban growth is piecemeal and generally lacking in essential services such as water, electricity, and drainage, as well as social, economic and cultural facilities.

To assist in this process, TFM commissioned a long-term urbanization plan for the town and created a Social Fund to finance priority infrastructure needs. In order to facilitate community involvement and input in the planning process, TFM engaged CHF International to develop a community-based Urban Development Committee. CHF will launch a consultative, participatory process involving all residents and stakeholders throughout the town to identify priority infrastructure needs consistent with the Urban Management Plan which meet the criteria for funding by the Social Fund. A team of community organizers and engineers supported by CHF will work with neighborhood groups established through this process to review urban infrastructure problems and propose solutions. Members of these community groups will join local and provincial government representatives on the Urban Development Committee to guide the long-term urbanization of Fungurume.

The near term objectives of this initiative are: to increase the number of local organizations that can serve as effective partners with the local government in advancing the urban management plan; an improved sense of ownership for the urban development of Fungurume among community and government stakeholders; an increased willingness to contribute to maintenance and operations of infrastructure; an improved and more effective collaboration between the community and TFM in implementation of community-agreed infrastructure investments; and additional outside investment in the urban plan.

“We are extremely pleased to be working with Tenke Fungurume Mining in the DRC. CHF has a history of bringing together communities all over the world to help them identify priorities for their own development. We praise the work TFM has done and welcome the opportunity to partner with an organization that sees itself as an integral part of its community,” said David A. Weiss, President and CEO of CHF International.

“TFM will have significant economic and social challenges in connection with the influx of large numbers of people into Fungurume,” said Rick Gittleman, Senior Vice President Freeport-McMoRan Africa. “Partnering with CHF is a significant step in TFM’s efforts to assist the Fungurume community manage its urban growth and to mitigate adverse economic and social impacts, as well as to identify and maximize opportunities for improving sustainability in Fungurume.”

ABOUT CHF INTERNATIONAL
CHF International (CHF) is an international development organization founded in 1952 that works in more than 20 conflict-affected and developing countries around the world. CHF partners with communities to help them direct the improvement of their lives and livelihoods, and believes that the people best suited to decide what a community needs are the people of the community itself. CHF is a politically neutral, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. For more information, visit www.chfinternational.org.

ABOUT TFM
TFM is an affiliate of Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold and is a registered company in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It represents the largest investment in the DRC and produces 135,000 tonnes of copper and 8,000 tonnes of cobalt. TFM hires directly and indirectly 7,000 employees 98 percent of the permanent employees are Congolese nationals.